Steam-boiler in conjunction with gas-producers.



A. E. AYER.

STEAM BOILER IN CONJUNCTION WITH GAS PRODUCERS.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 3, 1912.

Patented Dec.29,1914.

II II4 HIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIII 1 +IIIIIIIIIIIII IIII flIIIIIIII 1 IIIIIIIIIIIIII 1 IIIIuIIIt III ALTON EBZBEBT AYER, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

STEAM BOILEB IN CONJUNCTION WITH GAS-PRODUCERS.

Specification 'of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 29, 1914'.

Application filed February 3, 1912. Serial No. 675,272.

To all whom it may concern Be it lmown that .I, Arron E. Ame, a citizen of the United States, residin at Boston, in the county of Suffolk and tate of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Steam-Boilers in Conjunction with Gas-Producers and Gas- Power Plants, of which the following is a specification.

This invention .relates to' a, combination gas producer and steam boiler construction.

More particularly it is an object of the invention to provide a plant capable of furnishing from a single apparatus both gas and steam.

It is an object of. the invention to provide apparatus, having this general purpose, in which the construction is simple and therefore inexpensive of installation and relatively easy of repair; in which some of the heat that would otherwise be waste is utilized; in which the heat used for making the steam is obtained, or appears to be obtained, from the fuel used in making gas without consumption of additional fuel for making the steam; and in which this heat is made available for this purpose without increasing materially the size of the plant as a whole and without requiring any direct firing, so far as the steam 'makingis concerned. It is believed that these features will make the invention especially useful in localities where the low cost of producer gas power would naturally lead to the in stallation of plants and engines of that type except for the fact that steam is also re quired on the premises, for heating or other purposes, requiring the installation of a steam plant' also. Consequently it is one airn of the invention to furnish such steam cheaply in connection with or incidentally to a producer gas generator, and under circumstances such that the generation of steam can continue for a period, notwithstanding the producer be shut down, as during the noonhour or overnight; or so that the generation of steam can cease, as during the summer season,notwithstanding the continuance of the producer in operation.

It is a further object of the invention to arrange so that the action of the gas producer, considered purely as a producer, is

to channel along the producer walls; and in general to produce apparatus having the other advantages that characterize the structure herein described.

An embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a vertical central 'section through the combined gas producer and steam generator; Fig. 2 is a horizontal section at the level A; and Fig. 3 is a horizontal section at the level B.

Inasmuch as the invention is applicable to substantially any-type of producer, down draft or up draft, and with any arrangement of the auxiliary appliances and connections of the producer, which form no part of the invention, the drawings show only the main portion of the producer, the part which is commonly called the producer,- where the fuel is converted into gas, andillustrate the application of the invention thereto.

Referring to the drawings, and especially to Fig. 3, the wall of the producer is represented as embodying tubes 1, standing vertically and arranged alternately with bricks around the central space provided for the fuel, the backs of the tubes being incased in brick. In the form represented, their faces are exposed to the fuel, so that the face of the lining, aspresented to the fuel, is alternate tubing 1 and fire brick 2; the middle portion of the lining is solid brick, formed in this case by the peculiar shape of the bricks which reach in behind the tubing until they come in contact with each other; while the outside of the wall is a shell 3 of iron. The tubes connect at the bottom with an annular drum 4: which underlies both tubes and brick and they connect at the top with an annular drum 5 which similarly lies over the top of the composite Wall of bricks and tubes. This piping system is adapted to contain water which ordinarily will stand improved, by a lessened tendency of the fire plant, and also carries a gage glass 10. A

steam pressure gage 11 may also be applied here.

It is obvious that the upper drum and thelower drum may be designed large or small at will by simply increasing the vertical dimension without altering the surface exposed to the fuel box as the under drum is at the level -of the ashes and the 'upper drum is above the level of the unburnt fuel,

or the capacity may beenlarged by outside above the ashes and resting on them is the fire, which is a mass of fuel at exceedingly high temperature undergoing reduction to gas and in a producer of ordinary size extending upward for five feet or so; still farther above which is alayer offresh fuel awaiting its turn to descend into the region of chemical activity and still above that is a space reaching to the top and containing only gases. There is provision at 17 for introduction of a proper mixture of air and vapor in the necessary limited quantity to make a proper chemical reduction of coal to gas, without burning the coal to carbon dioxid. Fuel is added from time, to time.

through one of the openings 15 in the top.

The level of the fuel undergoing reduc tion may be controlled by allowing the column of ashes under it to accumulate to a greater or less height, removing them at the bottom in order to lower the level of the fire. The openings 15 at the side of the top enable the workmen to reach in with suitable tools to push the fuel downmore solidly around the sides, as is necessary in order to minimize a defect, lmown as channeling, which usually characterizes the operation of producers. A discharge opening 16 is also provided which may be closed when the producer is in operation, but may be opened to a chimney when the producer is shut down, thus providing a small ventv for such waste of gases as occurs while the producer is in lie-over. The intense heat emanating from the large mass of fire in the body of the producer passes by conduction or radiation into the wall or lining of the producer and vaporizes water in the tubes 1, thus furnishingthe steam, which may be withdrawn from the 'upper drum 5 through any suitable passage. This heat not only passes into the pipes directly from the bed of incandescent fuel, but proceeds thither indirectly through the adjacent bricks, so that the pipes and the water within them have a cooling effect on the bricks as Well as on the adjacent portions of the body of fuel, thus preventing the bricks from attaining the excessively high temperature which usually presence of a moderate amount of water,

than it is in producers having only the usual fire brick lining. This reduces the amount of heat radiated back from the walls to the fire box and-in factcools the outer edge of the fire bed moderately, delaying its rate of combustion or reduction, and this in turn reduces the amount of channeling. It is a customary fault of-producers as now built that the air supplied for the reduction process is afit to work its way along the edges, of the mass near the walIs,-consuming the portion near the edges more rapidly and making this extremely hot, while the center of the mass is not so hot; thus also decreasing the resi'stanceto air flow at the edges and increasing theamount of air that flows there, and so enlarging the resulting evil. At the same time this decreases the efficiency because the greater volume in which the air then travels increases the amount of actual burning to carbon dioxid.

-- By the maintenance of the face of the producer wall .at' the lower temperature the burning at the edges of the fuel mass, and the rapidity of reduction of the fuelthere, are reduced or retarded, so that the process of reduction acts more generally throughout the whole mass of fuel and there. is less channeling at the edges. At the sa'me'time such heat as passes into the wall-goes into the water within the tubes 1, and is absorbed by conversion of the same into steam which been proposed, in whicha double wall is provided-with a continuous space for water incasing the producer on all sides. This distinction I believe to be due to the. presence of the fire brick which at frequent intervals is directly in contact with the fueland so does not exert thereon the same intensity of cooling as does a water-filled pipe, although even this fire brick has itsheat gradually drawn to the pipe. The details of the surface exposed to the fuel may be variously designed on; the principles herein outlined,

the form illustrated being one' in which a considerable portion of the pipe is exposed directly, owing to the fact that the openings between the bricks are of the full diameter the producer is somewhat reduced; but I' have reason to think that a coincident increase of rate at which the reduction occurs in the interior of the mass may make up for this; and it is to be observed in any event that whatever reduction of gas producing occurs at the edges of the mass is compensated by the production of steam- The production of steam and gas in the same plant adapts the apparatus for locations where gas producers have hitherto not been used for power because of the necessity of having a separate plant for steam, where steam was needed for some purposes and could-not be dispensed with. With apparatus of the present invention the making of steam will continue while the producer is shut down at the noon-hour and no gas is being made; or when it is likewise shut down overni ht, because the body of incandescent fuel within is so enormous; but if mere radiation from this mass during its period of slow activity be insufficient some air can be admitted to enable the apparatus to run solely for the production of steam. In seasons when steam is not wanted, such as summer, it is only necessary to run in water sufiicient to fill the entire steam space, providing an expansion tank, according to ordinary practice and an outside circuit of the heated water, if desired, in order to run the apparatus as a producer alone without steam; and the hot water can be used for any purpose or can be returned at a lower temperature for continued circuit.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a gas producer a wall for the reduction. chamber comprising a combination of inert heat insulating material and water tubes, said insulating material being arranged around the sides of the tubes remote from the fire and projecting thence inward between the tubes, separatin them.

2. In a gas producer, a wal for the reduction chamber comprising insulating material having water tubes, the wall surface exposed to the interior of the chamber being alternately water tubing and refractory insulating material. 7

3. In a gas producer a wall for the reduction chamber having an interior lining of inert insulating material, provided with recesses; and water tubes passing through said recesses in proximity to the fuel undergoing reduction in the chamber.

4. In combination a gas producer, a water shell arranged at a low level, a steam dome at a high level and tubes connecting the water shell and steam dome and passing through the walls of the producer in proximity to the fuel undergoing reduction therein, exposed directly thereto on their sides toward the interior ofthe chamber, and surrounded andseparated from each other on other sides by insulatingv material of said walls.

5. In combination, in apparatus for the simultaneous generation of gas and steam, a cylindrical producer chamber, adapted for producing the gas, an annular chamber adapted to receive steam and resting on the cylindrical wall thereof, an annular chamber adapted to contain water and resting under the cylindrical wall thereof, and tubing connecting the said water and steam spaces through said cylindrical wall of the producer, said wall having inert heat insulating material extending around the outer sides of and inward between said tubes as far as the faces'of the tubes.

6. A combined producer for steam and gas in which the walls of the gas producer are divided into separate passages for water, with insulating material partially surrounding said water passages, the face of the interior wall of the producer being alternately insulating material and water passages. i

7. A gas producer having vertical walls of refractory heat-insulating material and means to support the same, said walls being provided with vertical recesses on the interior face thereof; tubes extending vertically through said recesses at intervals separated from each other by insulating material of the Walls extending between the tubes and chambers at top and bottom of said tubes connected therewith and joining ALTON ERBERT AYER. .Witnesses:

'HIRAM M. BURTON,

E. N. MAGKAY. 

